Bopanna-Qureshi in French Open quarter-finals

May 30, 2011 18:53 IST

Indian Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi advanced to the French Open men's doubles quarter-finals after a straight-set win over Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

The fifth seeded Indo-Pak pair beat their unseeded opponents 6-3, 7-5 in a third round match that lasted 69 minutes.

It will be Bopanna and Qureshi's third quarter-final appearance in the last four Grand Slams.

They now clash with top seeded American twins Mike and Bob Bryan, who defeated Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili and Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 7-6 (6) 7-5 in another pre-quarter-final.

Bopanna and Qureshi had lost to the Bryans in last year's US Open.

Bopanna is the only Indian surviving in the men's doubles, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi having made a shock second round exit.

Later in the day, seventh seeds Sania Mirza and Russia's Elena Vesnina take on top seeds Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the women's doubles quarter-finals.

Another contest of Indian interest is the mixed doubles quarter-final between the Indo-Czech pair of Paes-Iveta Benesova and the top seeded combination of Slovakia's Katarina Srebotnik and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic.